Wheeler began her lecture by delving into the negative aspects of print journalism that convinced her and many others to convert to blogging. ''There are innumerable ways in which large media institutions have conflicts of interest,'' Wheeler said.
She expressed skepticism for journalists' arguments that their professionalism ensures that they will have good sources and information. The wide variety of professed "journalists," including Tim Russert and various others, have different definitions for those terms, according to Wheeler.
Wheeler also cited source protection and journalist ethics, which include seeking and reporting truth, minimizing harm and being accountable as weaknesses within the current field of journalism. She elaborated upon the idea that journalist ethics is a nice ideal, but that "this ideal is not pointing to anything meaningful, because there is no way to enforce it."
It might have seemed from this point in her lecture that Wheeler greatly scorned print journalism, but she went on to empathetically point out realities that make good journalism difficult to find. She emphasized the effects of the consolidation of media journalism, explaining that in some instances, media aim to make a 20-percent profit, which ends up coming out of the time and space journalists have to report. "Journalists cannot tell complex stories anymore because they don't have the space to do so."
Turning her attention to her own work, Wheeler observed two historical trends have made blogging possible: the availability of multitudes of information online and the accessibility of new technology to average people. As a result, "citizens have been able to run their own press and have people listen," she said. "This is the underlying principle of blogging and of citizen-journalists."
Wheeler detailed her experiences as a blogger, or citizen-journalist, and illuminated its benefits to society. She brought up her live-blogging experiences during the Scooter Libby trial, during which she and other bloggers were the sources that the actual print journalists followed. "There is a certain irony when the press is getting its news from the blogs," she commented.
Wheeler called attention to the fact that many stories covered in the blogosphere are not reported in print journalism, pointing to important stories about poverty, Hurricane Katrina and business scandals as examples. Although she acknowledged that as a blogger she does not have an editor dictating what she can and cannot write, Wheeler still confidently asserted her role as a blogger.
"We're providing a different kind of news," said Wheeler. "Journalists have to write in a set form, as they have to be able to tell readers something authoritative." She, on the other hand, can take more creative approaches, such as posing questions or having timelines.
Wheeler also lauded bloggers' ability to connect with their readers. "We're changing the model of readership in significant ways," she said. "We're more effective at getting people active. We have a very different model of readership-many of our readers go from reading a story to taking political action."
Despite all of the positive components of the blogosphere, however, Wheeler does not think that bloggers can replace journalists. Instead, bloggers are effecting a transition in journalism. "Bloggers are useful because they're pressing the media to be more attentive to readers, those who are asking questions." Wheeler believes that the new kind of print journalism will emphasize more viewpoints and sources. She expressed hope that journalists will adopt a thought-provoking rather than a "we have all the answers" mentality.
Wheeler concluded her lecture with an optimistic outlook on the general realm of journalism. "What is great about blogging is that there are branching modes of communication, so readers get more diverse networks," she said. At the end of this transition that bloggers are catalyzing, "there will be networks where people get a commonality by that network."
The responses of students who attended the lecture were mixed. Ricardo Bilton '10 expressed disappointment at the specificity of her talk. "While I did enjoy her insights into the Scooter Libby case, she spent way too much time on her personal experience and not enough time on the state of journalist ethics as a whole, which I was more interested in," he said.
Sara Sligar '10, meanwhile, had a different reaction. "I thought it was wonderful to be able to learn about political blogging from someone so renowned in the field," she said. "Her talk opened my eyes to some of the deceits going on in mainstream journalism and has made me think more critically about what types of news I read."